O – One Word from Sophia

One Word From Sophia written by Jim Averbeck and illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail (2015)

Sophia wants a giraffe for her birthday, but first she must convince her mother the judge, her father the businessman, her uncle the politician, and her grandma-mama who is very strict. So she begins her campaign for a giraffe. After presenting her case, her mother’s decision was ‘no’… and she told Sophia that her argument was too verbose. So she used fewer words when giving her proposal to her father, but he still said ‘no’ and told Sophia that her presentation was too effusive. And she used even fewer words in addition to polls and charts when trying to convince her uncle, but he also said ‘no’ and told Sophia that her report was far too loquacious. Finally, Sophia approached her grand-mama with an offer of a foot massage. But she didn’t even get started with her plea before grand-mama cut her off. But Sophia wasn’t about to give up, she reworked her whole presentation to just one word… please. And her word was successful! To which she added two more words… thank you.

I love that this picture book uses large words for kids and gives parents the inside jokes about arguments for judges, businessmen, and politicians. And it reminds kids of the magic words… Please and Thank You. As a read-aloud it works on both levels.